


Flower Petals

by polysebongs



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Polyamory, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Underage Drinking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-07
Updated: 2017-08-07
Packaged: 2018-12-12 04:03:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,342
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11729127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/polysebongs/pseuds/polysebongs
Summary: When he had first seen the flowers bloom across his flesh on his 16th birthday he had been entranced. He had sat in front of his mirror until the clock struck midnight waiting with as much exposed skin as possible in an attempt to watch his mark appear. The slow outline of each flower being drawn had kept him staring at his mirror for nearly an hour.





	Flower Petals

**Author's Note:**

> this is so self-indulgent sorry

“I can’t believe you’re really leaving us.” 

Seokmin flings himself down on the bare dorm mattress, if it can even be called a mattress Soonyoung isn’t sure. He huffs out a laugh and sets down the box he had been carrying, letting it fall barely an inch to the floor with a thump. He takes in the empty room and bare walls that will soon be covered in posters, with pictures of the other four boys scattered around the tiny space.

“I can’t believe all of you came with me to move in, there’s like barely any room to walk right now.”

“We had no choice. This is potentially the last time we'll be seeing you before you forget about us.” Seungkwan is overdramatic, as usual, and Hansol pats him on the head to calm him. Chan snorts and continues rifling through the boxes on Soonyoung's desk, not one to play into Seungkwan's antics. 

“I'm not going to forget about you.” Soonyoung rolls his eyes, a fond smile creeping its way onto his face. He's really going to miss these kids, but college is a fresh start and a necessary step in his life. Maybe he'll even finally make some friends his own age for once. “I'll be home for every break and everyone's dance and drama performances.”

“Yeah for now!” Seokmin bolts up from his position of staring at the ceiling. “As soon as he finds his soulmate that'll be it for us. There we go, no more room for the poor ol’ squad once Mr. Right comes along! Poof, bye bye Soonyoung!”

“Hey, that's not true.” Hansol looks up from where he had been playing with the short hairs at the back of Seungkwan's neck. “He wouldn't ditch us just because he finds his soulmate.” He reaches down to poke at the little pause and play button tattoo tucked behind Seungkwan's ear for emphasis. 

“Not to disagree, but not everyone is so lucky to have their tattoos appear already filled in,” the slight bitter tone in Chan’s voice makes Soonyoung stifle a chuckle, the youngest of the group still hasn’t gotten his tattoo. 

“What makes you think I’m going to meet my soulmate so soon? It could be years before I run into him.” 

Soonyoung is suddenly a bit envious of his friends’ soulmate tattoos, the ones present are quite a bit smaller and simpler than his own. His is big. It stretches over more area than all of the tattoos he's seen, the bundle of flowers neatly covers the rounded bulb of his right shoulder with the tendrils reaching from his collarbone to his shoulder blade and down his arm just slightly. 

When he had first seen the flowers bloom across his flesh on his 16th birthday he had been entranced. He had sat in front of his mirror until the clock struck midnight waiting with as much exposed skin as possible in an attempt to watch his mark appear. The slow outline of each flower being drawn had kept him staring at his mirror for nearly an hour. His soulmate must love flowers. The tattoo was supposed to have some sort of special meaning to it but Soonyoung wasn’t particularly fond of flowers, the pollen tickled his nose too much to enjoy anything but the fake kind. 

“I just have a feeling,” Seungkwan shrugs. He’s making that face that means he’s overly confident and it makes Soonyoung want to pinch his cheeks. 

“Alright, did you come to help me or did you come to make me feel bad about being the oldest?” 

“Well obviously I'm not going to do any work,” Seungkwan drawls and Hansol laughs. “It's like you don't know me at all.” 

Soonyoung kicks them out of his room after that, he can handle unpacking alone. He was lucky enough to land himself in the one hall of single dorms open to freshmen, so he doesn’t need to deal with tiptoeing around some stranger while he gets settled. He finishes unpacking and decorating pretty quickly and sends a picture to his mother while the room is still clean, she calls shortly after to apologize for not being able to get off work to help him. It feels weird, Soonyoung isn’t homesick but he’s also not excited. 

When his alarm blares the next morning it takes Soonyoung a few minutes to realize where he had fallen asleep. The first few mornings are like that, disorienting and strange, until he starts to settle into a rhythm of classes and homework and having the kids keep him updated on everything going on back home. It’s a little boring, but Soonyoung would prefer that while he’s still getting used to his surroundings over the craziness he would face if his friends had come with him. He gets so used to the paths he takes to classes that he’s basically running on autopilot by the third week. 

He realizes that’s a big mistake when he slams full speed into someone in the hallway of his dorm because he was trying to skim over a reading he’d forgotten about the night before. 

“Sorry,” he mutters, sheepishly looking up from his phone. The guy he ran into is slightly taller, he has to crane his neck a little to be able to look directly at his face, and covered in what looks like potting soil. The other isn’t looking at him, he’s staring forlornly at a toppled flowerpot laying sadly at his feet. That would explain the soil. Soonyoung crouches down and attempts to right the little plant in its terracotta pot before handing it back to the boy watching him from behind round wire glasses. “I should’ve been paying more attention.” 

“It’s okay, no harm no foul.” A small smile spreads across the boy’s face causing his nose to scrunch up and his glasses to slide down the bridge of his nose. Soonyoung feels like the wind has been knocked out of him and he has to look away before he completely forgets how to breathe. His eyes land on a black outline peaking out from the neck of the other’s t-shirt, he’s not sure if his eyes are playing tricks on him or not but it looks like a faint blue is creeping it’s way across the skin. 

“Uh, your…” Soonyoung doesn’t know how to finish the sentence. ‘Your soulmate tattoo is coloring in right now and that means I’m your soulmate’ seems a bit too forward for him to actually spit it out. Thankfully, the other boy seems to have also been fixated on Soonyoung's collarbone, his eyes comically wide when he looks up to meet Soonyoung's gaze. 

“I'm Wonwoo. I guess we're soulmates?” It's not a question, but the way Wonwoo's deep voice quirks up hesitantly at the end makes it seem like one. 

“Soonyoung,” Soonyoung nods and reaches his hand out to shake. He has to wait for Wonwoo to shift the pot so he can reach out and meet Soonyoung's. There's a very awkward moment where they just stare at each other with their hands clasped together, not really sure what to say or do in the moment. 

“I live right here.” Wonwoo gestures over his shoulder to the door with the cheesy construction paper name tag and starts to take a step in that direction. 

Soonyoung skips his first class that day, opting to sit awkwardly in Wonwoo’s desk chair for an hour as he tries to think of things to say. Wonwoo has a lot of plants, the entirety of his windowsill is covered with pots and vases of various sizes holding everything from little cactuses to flowers that look suspiciously like the ones in Soonyoung’s tattoo. The surfaces that aren’t lined with pots are stacked high with books of all subject matter, the walls mostly blank except for a few monochrome art prints and random Polaroid photos taped up. Wonwoo flits around the small room spritzing water from a little spray bottle and rearranging pots to nestle the new one into a spot on the dresser. It’s interesting, watching him move around and finish whatever little chores he had set for himself that day. Soonyoung would feel a bit like he was intruding if it weren’t for the little half smiles Wonwoo sends him whenever they make eye contact. 

“That one’s a hydrangea,” Wonwoo explains, gesturing toward the little bundle of blue and purple closest to Soonyoung. “It looks like I got the color right too.” 

“Mine doesn’t have that.” Wonwoo tilts his head to the side slightly, his eyebrows knitted together in confusion. 

Soonyoung shrugs off his jacket and yanks at the wide neckline of his tank top to reveal as much of his tattoo as possible for the other to examine. Wonwoo’s face doesn’t change but after a moment he stands and tugs his shirt over his head with one swift motion before pulling Soonyoung over to the mirror mounted on the closet door. Soonyoung can feel his face heating as he stares at the reflection in front of him. He curbs the urge to reach over and run his hand down the flat expanse of Wonwoo’s stomach when the other starts speaking.

“They’re different.” Wonwoo’s eyes are flickering between the flowers stretching across Soonyoung’s shoulder and the ones on his own skin. “You’re missing the hydrangeas.”

“Why are some of them still blank?” Soonyoung watches through the mirror as Wonwoo’s expression morphs from confusion into something more complicated. 

Soonyoung’s first instinct when he gets back to his dorm after his classes is to tell his friends. He waits anxiously for each person to pick up the video call and for all four of their faces to fill up each respective box on his laptop screen. He doesn’t explain really, just tells them he wants to show them something and exposes his tattoo for the second time that day. They seem excited at first, asking him a million questions he doesn’t answer until they hit the right one. He still can’t answer when they ask why it’s not totally colored in, he can just tell them about Wonwoo and that they’re figuring it out. The uncomfortable buzzing under his skin that had been present from the moment he first saw the matching empty flowers starts to dissipate as he talks with his little squad. Thankful that they know exactly how to distract him. 

“Don’t worry,” Seokmin’s tinny voice cuts through the speakers of Soonyoung’s laptop. He’s always the last of the group to leave the frequent video chats they’ve started since Soonyoung moved to school. “You’ll get it figured out. At least your soulmate didn’t turn out to be a girl, imagine the major sexuality panic you’d have if that happened. I don’t think a second of that would be too good for your health.” 

Soonyoung can’t help but laugh at that, but he’s still worried and he hopes it doesn’t show when he ends the call with Seokmin a few minutes later. What if his soulmate bond is broken? He’s heard urban legends about the tattoos being wrong, everyone has, but nobody really knows if those stories were ever true to begin with. 

Soonyoung tries to return to his normal schedule of homework and sleep that night, but it seems like every moment he isn’t totally focused on whatever he’s working on his mind is wandering back to all the possibilities and to Wonwoo. At some point the next day he finds himself standing in front of Wonwoo’s door, not really sure how he had ended up there when he had planned on going to the campus gym to try to take advantage of one of the mirrored studio rooms to get some dance practice in. Something compels him to knock and he chalks it up to the soulmate bond tugging him to Wonwoo now that they had found each other. Wonwoo’s deep voice comes from inside, telling him that the door is open, and Soonyoung finds him reclined in his bed reading.

“Oh, hey.” Wonwoo looks up when he hears the door click shut behind Soonyoung and a smile blooms over his face when he realizes who it is. “I wasn’t sure when I’d see you again.”

“We’re soulmates, you can’t get rid of me for long.” 

The giggle that escapes Wonwoo’s throat has Soonyoung feeling like butterflies are about to burst out of his chest and he has to sit down on the edge of the bed so that he doesn’t explode on the spot. 

“Speaking of that, I was doing a little research last night and I don’t think we should let the tattoos being unfinished stop us from getting to know each other.” Wonwoo’s looking at him and Soonyoung feels like he’s going to combust any second and that feeling only gets worse when Wonwoo sits up a bit and grabs his hand. “Wanna go on a date, soulmate?”

~

“My best friend is in town,” Wonwoo’s voice startles Soonyoung awake. He had been dozing on Wonwoo’s chest while the taller boy read a novel and traced the lines of his tattoo. “He’s bringing his boyfriend and they want to go on a double date.”

“What, like tonight?” Soonyoung sits up so he can look at Wonwoo properly, accidentally knocking Wonwoo’s book onto the floor and receiving an exaggerated huff in response. The sunlight flooding through his boyfriend’s window tells him he doesn’t even need to look at the time to see that it’s late afternoon already. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier?”

“Yeah, about that… Mingyu and I,” Wonwoo pauses, not properly meeting Soonyoung’s gaze, “we kind of have some history.” 

“Explain.”

“We dated, back in high school. It wasn’t anything serious, we had been friends for years and it only lasted for a few months before Mingyu found his soulmate.” Wonwoo turns to meet Soonyoung’s eyes. “There’s nothing between us but, I don’t know, Minghao thought it was weird when he first found out. Not a lot of people date before they find their soulmates.”

“I’ll process that information later,” Soonyoung notes, trying to remain calm as he stands from the bed to check his reflection in his boyfriend’s mirror. He fixes his mussed hair and tries to straighten out the wrinkles in his shirt before giving up and turning back to Wonwoo. “When are we meeting them?”

“Um,” Wonwoo hesitates, pushing himself up as well. He reaches over to light up the screen of his phone sitting beside him on the bed, a miniature Soonyoung caught in a laugh as miniature Wonwoo kisses his cheek. 

He had taken the picture on one of their first few dates, surprising Soonyoung with a bouquet of hydrangeas and lisianthus to match the colored section of their tattoos; the purples, blues, and whites in the blooms mingling together beautifully. The flowers didn’t last the week despite Wonwoo telling Soonyoung exactly what to do to keep them from wilting. 

“About an hour? We should probably go soon though, it takes a few minutes to walk there.”

“You’re so lucky I was already dressed when I came over,” Soonyoung sighs and begins running his fingers through his boyfriend’s hair to smooth it, using it as an excuse to disguise the fidgeting. 

He’d heard about Wonwoo’s best friend before. The two of them have been dating for a few months so he’s heard plenty of Wonwoo’s stories from home. However, Wonwoo had failed to mention this snippet of information. Wonwoo dating before isn’t what bothers Soonyoung, it’s that they continued to be best friends. He knows it shouldn’t bother him, Wonwoo is his soulmate for crying out loud, but it still does. 

He’s thankful that Wonwoo knows how to read him so well, whether it’s their bond or just that Wonwoo is observant, because he keeps Soonyoung’s mind occupied on their walk by explaining the overly complicated plot of his current novel and running his thumb along the back of Soonyoung’s hand. By the time they’re sliding into the red pleather booth at their favorite diner, he’s reassured himself that there’s nothing to be worried about. 

Until he sees Mingyu. Soonyoung has seen Mingyu in pictures before, but polaroids stuck to the wall and old prom pictures on Wonwoo’s phone screen do not do the guy justice. Suddenly, Soonyoung’s partially colored tattoo pales in comparison to the freaking male model that plops down across from him. The introductions should be awkward, but it’s impossible to do anything but smile when Mingyu is beaming at Soonyoung like he’s the grown-up version of the baby in the sun from the Teletubbies. 

“I’m so glad we’re here. Gyu would not stop talking about how excited he is to meet you,” Minghao says, his eyes rolling so hard that Soonyoung is convinced it should hurt. “Three hours of listening to him go on and on about how happy he is that Wonwoo finally found his soulmate.” Mingyu squawks and blows a straw wrapper at Minghao’s head. It misses by a longshot, instead landing in Wonwoo’s water. 

“You act like it’s been more than a year since you met Minghao, it’s not like I was pitiful and alone.” Wonwoo is pouting at the soggy paper floating in his drink as he talks so Soonyoung picks it out and balls it up. Soonyoung flicks the little ball across the table and hits Mingyu in the forehead, sending the other two into a fit of giggles. 

It’s not hard to like the other couple. Soonyoung realizes this when Wonwoo is telling stories from high school, Minghao throwing in snarky comments to embarrass his boyfriend. It’s weird, but Soonyoung quickly feels like he fits in with the group as if he hadn’t missed several years of friendship. The meal passes easily, the four of them squabbling over french fries and throwing out insults like it's natural. 

“One of my friends from my hometown is a freshman here too,” Minghao comments as he picks at the remnants of his burger. “He lives off campus with a few of his older friends. They're having a party, we're invited if you guys wanna go.”

Soonyoung looks to Wonwoo. He had been to a few parties here and there but Wonwoo had skipped out almost every time. Soonyoung doesn't blame him. A lot of times the parties either get way out of hand or end up being a waste of time. Wonwoo shrugs though, and about an hour later Soonyoung is struggling into his tightest jeans. They stop off at the cheap motel Mingyu and Minghao have rented for the evening and somehow Soonyoung is convinced to let Minghao line his eyes with thick kohl. It's a little intense looking in comparison to his outfit but something about the way Wonwoo's gaze keeps lingering makes him not want to wash it off immediately. It seems late by the time they reach the house but it doesn't seem like the party has started yet. 

“Minghao!” The front door flings open before they're halfway up the stairs to the porch. The blonde man who had called out rushes over and traps Minghao in a tight hug and Soonyoung notices the light flush on his face, clearly the drinking had begun earlier than Soonyoung thought. The man detaches himself from Minghao only to grab him by the hand and pull him inside, the rest of the group following behind. “Guys! Minghao is here!” 

Three guys turn to face the new arrivals from where they're gathered around a game of beer pong, the same flush of the first man coloring their faces. The tallest of the group rushes forward to envelope Minghao in his arms, lifting him from the ground and spinning them in a circle and speaking quickly in what sounds like Chinese. 

One of the others steps forward, he has to raise his voice a bit to be heard but he looks far more composed than the others. “I'm Joshua, the one that let you in is Jeonghan, and the excited one is Junhui. We're the ones that live here, and this is our friend Seungcheol.” 

Friendly hellos and introductions are given while Junhui and Minghao continue chatting animatedly in Chinese off to the side. Junhui doesn't pay any mind until Jeonghan starts shouting about doing shots for friendship or something. The party kicks into full gear after that, people starting to pour in quickly. Soonyoung finds himself dancing in the packed kitchen with Minghao, a bottle of cheap strawberry lemonade vodka being passed between them and Jeonghan. 

“Hey.” Soonyoung feels the warm breath on the back of his neck more than he hears the voice. He turns, coming face to face with Junhui's throat. He did not seem that tall when he was wrapped around Minghao a while ago. “I like the way you move, you a dancer?”

“Junhui, stop flirting,” Minghao snorts. Maybe Soonyoung’s a bit drunker than he thought but he could swear Junhui wasn't talking so loud that Minghao would hear him over the music. Minghao gestures to the the tendrils of the tattoo sticking out from beneath Soonyoung's sleeve, “he's taken.”

“Do you mind if I…?” Soonyoung nods. Junhui's expression changes drastically from the flirty smirk he was sporting just a moment ago to something more serious as he runs his fingers over the bits of exposed foliage. He lifts Soonyoung's sleeve just a bit and Soonyoung shivers. HE can’t look away from Junhui's face but he can feel him tracing the outline of a daisy. “Where's your boyfriend?”

“Outside, I thin-” 

Before Soonyoung can finish his sentence he's being pulled by the wrist toward the porch where Wonwoo, Mingyu, Seungcheol, and a few others are sitting in a cloud of smoke. Junhui grabs Wonwoo too, after Soonyoung points him out, and leads them both into one of the the small bedrooms. He shuts and locks the door once he's shoved them through before pulling his shirt off, never breaking eye contact with Soonyoung. 

“I think you're my soulmate.” 

Soonyoung finally looks at the other’s shoulder and sure enough, blue purple are spreading over the flowers etched into Junhui's skin. He looks to Wonwoo, who is entranced in the flowing of color over Junhui's skin, before he takes his own shirt off and inspects his tattoo in the mirrored closet door. White is filling in the daisies that are dispersed among the other flowers, confirming that Junhui was right, and Wonwoo finally shrugs out of his jacket to reveal the same. 

“Both of you?” Junhui breathes out. 

Soonyoung just nods. 

~

Soonyoung wakes to the brush of soft lips against his shoulder, his eyes fluttering against the early morning light. Junhui likes to do this. Wake his two boyfriends up with gentle kisses and sweet whispers whenever they stay over with him. 

“Soonie, Wonwoo went to that cafe you like to pick up some breakfast.”

“Thanks,” Soonyoung mumbles into his pillow before turning his head toward Junhui's voice and blinking the sleep out of his eyes. Why did both of his soulmates need to turn out to be such morning people?

“Happy Valentine’s Day. I'll be in the shower, come get me if Wonie gets back before I'm out.” 

Junhui saunters off, Soonyoung has noticed that Junhui never really walks. He always saunters and sways. It's funny how easily the three of them fit together, even after just a few months it's evident just how strong soulmate bond is for them. Soonyoung is drifting off again, the sound of running water and Junhui's singing lulling him back to sleep, when his phone goes off. He groans and rolls toward the edge of Junhui's bed to snatch the phone off the nightstand. 

“Hello?”

“Hey babe,” Wonwoo sounds frantic on the other end of the line, “you and Junhui need to get down here. Now, please.”

“Are you okay? Did something happen?” Soonyoung is already climbing out of bed and rifling through Junhui's wardrobe to find some clothes he can borrow. 

“Just… just come to the cafe. I'll see you in a few minutes.” The line clicks dead and Soonyoung throws open the bathroom door. 

“We gotta go! Wonwoo just called and it sounded like something was wrong.” 

Junhui rinses the last of the shampoo out of his hair and follows Soonyoung out of the bathroom, his hair dripping onto his sweater and making him shiver on their walk. When they arrive, Wonwoo is sitting at a table by himself, two extra cups of coffee waiting on the table for them. 

“What's wrong and why don't you look like something's wrong?”

“Nothing's wrong,” Wonwoo snorts and takes a sip from his cup. “Something just… happened.” 

“It's too early for you to be this vague.” 

Junhui pats him on the head and sits down, snuggling into the booth next to Wonwoo and wrapping his hands around one of the extra coffees. Soonyoung takes a seat opposite them and starts sipping on his drink and letting the caffeine wake him up. He hears someone clearing their throat behind him and notices a small smile appear on Wonwoo's face before he turns around. When he makes eye contact with the person it's like the world momentarily stops, and he can tell by the look he catches on Junhui's face when he finally looks away that he isn't alone. 

“You see why I wanted you guys to come down here?” Wonwoo is smirking into his cup and sneaking glances at all of their faces, clearly smug. 

“I'm Jihoon. I'll be on break in a few minutes...” 

Jihoon is small, Soonyoung can tell by looking at him that he's a few inches shorter, but he carries himself as if he's the tallest person in the room. When he's out of earshot and pulling dirty dishes off empty tables Soonyoung turns back to his boyfriends. 

“Did you check?”

“Yeah, it's finished. The whole tattoo is colored in.” Wonwoo sounds amazed, he keeps subconsciously touching his shoulder as they sit and wait for Jihoon to return. 

“Even if he hadn't checked,” Junhui chimes in as he draws designs in the sugar he had dumped out on the table, “I would've believed it. I know you felt it, that was the bond completing, wasn't it?” 

Soonyoung thinks it was. Jihoon sits down with them a few minutes later, setting a plate of muffins in the middle of the table and wiping his hands on his apron. 

“So, uh, I don't mean to be a downer here,” Jihoon picks at the fraying edge of one of the pockets on his apron, “but I'm not really sure about this whole… thing.” Wonwoo is staring intently at a muffin and Junhui looks like he can't process what Jihoon is trying to say. “I mean, I guess I don't really have a choice. But, uh, I would prefer keeping our relationship platonic. For the time being at least. No offense, I'm sure you guys are great but we just met.” 

“O-of course.” Wonwoo nods, trying his best to reassure everyone at the table. “We had more time to get to know each other, it was all at once for you. We can be friends, right guys?” 

“Of course, as long as our Jihoonie is happy!” Jihoon's face flushes and he gapes at Junhui for a second before nodding. 

They exchange numbers and Jihoon agrees to join them for Valentine's Day dinner, platonically. Soonyoung feels like his head is spinning when they finally leave the cafe, somehow on top of the world and in the depths of disappointment. He gets it, he does. Finding your soulmate and then immediately finding out you've got more than one has got to be stressful, Soonyoung's still so thankful that Junhui is easygoing. But why put off the inevitable? Soulmates are rarely ever platonic, Jihoon must know that. 

It takes Soonyoung the rest of the day to calm down, but he manages to enjoy the dinner of take-out from the Olive Garden a few blocks from campus. It's surprisingly easy with Jihoon, even though they've never had a proper conversation with him it doesn't feel awkward. Jihoon even lets Junhui kiss him on the cheek before he leaves for the night, although he does turn bright red and grumble all the way to his car. 

~

“You're still awake?” 

Soonyoung looks up from his phone to see Joshua half asleep and pouring coffee into an unnecessarily large mug. It's late, or early depending on who you ask, but Soonyoung couldn't sleep and he didn't want to wake Junhui with the light of his phone. Soonyoung shrugs and continues scrolling through his social media. 

“Something wrong?” Josh sits down across the table from Soonyoung, concern etched on his normally serene looking features. 

“Junhui told you about Jihoon, right?”

“Yeah, how's that going?” Josh sips from his comically large mug and if Soonyoung was in a better mood he would probably make fun of it. 

“We met him over a month ago,” Soonyoung sighs, clicking the lock on his phone and slumping down into his seat, “and we're still… platonic with him.”

“That bothers you?” When Joshua gets no response he sets his mug down and reaches across the table to pat one of Soonyoung's hands. “Jeonghan and I met the first day of freshman orientation last year. We knew that we were soulmates, but nothing ever happened between us until we both went home for fall break. It was less than a week, but that time was the longest we had spent apart since we met and it made us realize that we didn't want to fight the bond anymore. It seems like a long time to wait now, but trust me when I say that Jihoon will come around.” Josh stands back up, taking his coffee with him, and ruffles Soonyoung's hair as he walks back to his bedroom to seemingly start his morning. 

~

“Jihoonie!” 

Soonyoung can hear Junhui singsong the second he enters the cafe. Thankfully it's pretty empty, just Soonyoung at the corner table working on homework and Jihoon wiping down the counter over and over between the occasional to-go order. Junhui plops down in one of the seats across from him and pulls his beanie off to run a hand through his hair. The little blonde flits out from behind the counter to drop off a plate of muffins and smack Junhui on the back of the head. 

“What did I say about calling me that, Junnie?” Junhui mumbles an apology into a chocolate chip muffin and Soonyoung snorts. “I thought you had class?” 

“I do, just wanted to come by and see my favorite soulmate.” 

“Well, now you're just trying to make me kick you out.” Junhui's smile is shit-eating when he pulls his beanie back on and stands up. Jihoon's eyes sparkle with mischief until Junhui plants a kiss on his cheek. He waves at them both, grabs another muffin, and bolts before Jihoon can hit him again. Jihoon checks to make sure his manager isn't around and sits down in the spot Junhui had just vacated. “Do you think he'll stop this when I tell him I'm ready for a relationship?” 

“Probably not.” A pause. Soonyoung's head snaps up from his notes to lock eyes with Jihoon. “You are?”

Jihoon shrugs. “I figure I've made you guys suffer enough and I'm seeing my parents in a few weeks. I haven't told then I found my soulmates yet and I want to be able to say that they're treating me right and all that mushy crap.”

“Really? Like, you're being serious?” 

“Yes, Soonyoung,” Jihoon sighs exasperatedly before smiling and pulling Soonyoung in for a chaste kiss. Soonyoung feels the world stop again, just like the first time he met Jihoon. 

Except this time, it doesn't just stop. It feels like it settles, like everything is suddenly the way it should be. Jihoon's manager calls for him and he ruffles Soonyoung's hair before scurrying off to the back room, leaving Soonyoung smiling to himself in the empty cafe.

**Author's Note:**

> feel free to follow me on twitter @chan_mp3
> 
> also i apologize for any weirdness in formatting im too lazy for ao3


End file.
